Colombia’s national meteorological institute (IDEAM) has announced that heavy rains will last until mid-June, when the La Niña weather pattern passes.
IDEAM officials said that the intense rains will last for four-to-five day stretches, with respites of three-to-four days at a time, various media reported Monday.
“From Tuesday to Thursday we will have a reduction in the amount of rain, it won’t be as heavy, but the rains will start again from Friday and continue through Saturday and Sunday,” explained IDEAM Director Ricardo Lozano, in regards to the upcoming week.
Lozano said that the breaks in the rain should be taken advantage of, in order to move forward construction projects, such as dikes and retaining walls, to contain the water from flooded rivers in the affected zones.
“The rains will return again in September and last until December. They [officials] should take advantage of those two months of summer for construction projects,” said the director.
Meanwhile, the Risk Management Department of the Interior and Justice Ministry is maintaining a number of departments in a state of “red alert” due to the heavy rains, including Santander, Boyaca and Cundinamarca, where a number of new disasters were registered over the past week.